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LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS BY MADS ANANDA LODAHL

An event with Mads Ananda Lodahl engages the audience and really sets off the debate on diversity, normality and inclusion. He reaches out to his audience and his practical and surprising approaches to sex, gender and sexuality make the subject understandable and relevant for everyone. It’s entertaining, informative and very hands-on.

A subject for everyone – everyone has a gender!

Many people get in trouble with society’s ideas about what we are supposed to be like as men and women. This is obviously the case for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people, but it is also true for sissy boys and aggressive girls, strong women and weak men, women who don’t want to be mothers, and adults who choose to be single.

To stand out can affect the well-being and safety of the individual and lead to bullying, exclusion, violence, loss of jobs, harassment or simply a feeling of not being seen, understood and appreciated – and this affects both children, young people and adults, men and women, gay and straight – and everyone in between.

Mads makes people aware of their own gender expectations, and the hurtful consequences these expectations can have – for themselves and for others – he shows a road away from prejudice and discrimination and toward greater understanding and inclusion.

Just send an email…

Mads offers lectures, talks, workshops and seminars for educational institutions, businesses, associations and festivals and is happy to participate in panel discussions or as a facilitator or moderator. He is also a popular guest speaker at conferences and seminars as either the opening or closing act.

GET INSPIRED BY PREVIOUS EVENTS…

Mads holds a workshop on power relations in workplaces for all employees of the Greenpeace Nordic departments. After an introduction to basic theories on power and an introduction to the so-called master suppression techniques, Mads facilitates group discussions around the participants’ own experiences with power both at work and in other situations. The workshop makes the participants aware of hierarchies and power relations, and provides effective tools to empowerment for all.

Mads currently works together with the Copenhagen Municipality offering a similar workshop to colleges and minority communities in Copenhagen, as a part of the city’s anti-discrimination campaign.

Lecture on LGBT history at Efterskolen Ådalen (boarding school)

Mads passionately describes the history of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) struggle for recognition and shows how this particular struggle is connected to that of other minority groups and to the rest of society. After the lecture he discusses political strategies, democracy and minority/majority-relations with the students. During the lecture students get an in-depth insight into a part of history that many people don’t know, with an opportunity to talk about minorities in a different way than usual. The lecture is an entertaining and thought-provoking mix between an alternative history/social studies class and a debate night.

Talk on the right to decide over your own body at Testrup Højskole (folk high school)

Mads exhibits a disturbingly large amount of examples of how the most fundamental right – the right to decide over your own body – is constantly being limited and compromised. Whether it be women, who are forced into sex work or exposed to abuse and sexual harassment, homosexuals who are ashamed of their sexual desire, trans people who do not have access to medical treatment, intersex people who are operated on without consent nor medical reasons, Muslim women who are either forced to or not allowed to wear headscarfs – and little boys who are scared to wear nail polish. Through the power of example and with the use of queer theory, Mads outlines the oppressive system that he calls, ‘The Straight World Order’, which – he claims – gets 90% of us in some sort of trouble. Guaranteed to be an interesting debate!

Workshop on overcoming oppression and discrimination for BLUS (LGBT students in Copenhagen)

Mads has more than 14 years of experience as a political activist, developing a system with no less than 21 concrete forms of resistance against all forms of oppression. This universal system can be used by all vulnerable groups, individuals and minorities, and there is something for everyone: from the parliamentary to the provocative; the mild to the militant; the delightful to the dangerous. Mads provides the tools and the toolbox – you decide how you use it! The workshop has been described as “overwhelmingly empowering” and gives the participants a strong sense of power over their own lives and a firm believe in change. Powerless? Never again!

Mads gives an introduction to norm critical pedagogy and gender theory, presenting facts about LGBT children and adolescents and their circumstances in institutions and society. He challenges the stereotypical and habit-based notions of children’s and adults’ gender, with strong arguments from both theoretical and personal areas. He tells stories from his own practice as a teacher and sex counsellor for young people and works with the participants’ own experiences and dilemmas with children. The lecture is a regular part of the education for pedagogues in several university colleges in Denmark.

Photo: Tuğçe Deniz Çakır

NY BOG: UPASSENDE OPFØRSEL

ABOUT MADS ANANDA LODAHL

Mads Ananda Lodahl is a Danish writer, lecturer and activist. He has a bachelor's degree in teaching, has studied queer theory and conflict resolution, and has been involved in countless cultural, social and political projects around sex, gender and sexuality.

RECOMMENDATIONS

"The most touching talk [at TEDxCopenhagen 2013] was given by Mads Ananda Lodahl. It gave a new perspective to the worn-out subject of normality."- Marie Høst, journalist, DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation)

“The students loved it! They especially liked the historical presentation, which was short and precise, but still made clear how the historical developments are in play today. They also enjoyed that they were engaged and thus had the chance to turn the discussions in the directions that related to them.”- Jesper Lohmann, Master of Arts, teacher at the Danish Institute for Studies Abroad (DIS)

“It is rare to experience queer theory come alive as it does in Mads’ practice-oriented workshops. You get concrete tools and suggestions for action and afterwards you feel much more empowered. It leaves you with the courage and motivation to go out and make a change.”- Jutta Maria Vikman, head of BLUS (LGBTQ-students in Copenhagen)

"Mads was just the person we needed! Everyone was very excited about the presentation."- Liv Høyer Rabjerg, educational planner, CEVEA think tank

"Mads was credible, engaged and to the point. The students had an extraordinarily great afternoon and found that the subject was so important that they wish to implement it into other parts of their education."- Britta Kornholt, teacher at University College UCC in Copenhagen

“The queer-feminist agenda – that’s the agenda Mads sets. With his empathetic accounts and his personal engagement he touches on the many facets of sexuality. Gender is thoroughly investigated and prejudices are shot down. A lecture with Mads gets the queer thought processes going.”- Ulrik Frost, chairwoman, Selskab for Ligestilling

“The readings created a brilliant and very personal framework for the debate that followed. It was a great lecture that people were discussing for the rest of the night – the rest of the week actually.”- Morten Grimstrup, student and vice-president of the student council at Testrup Folk High School

“Mads gave our students a new understanding of gender and sexuality – both on a theoretical level but most certainly on a more personal level. The students were curious and Mads’s own stories captivated them especially well. It was a big eye-opener for the students.”- Helle Skovmose, teacher, Johannesskolens High School

"I was crazy about Mads' lecture at my school! It was a great event that people talked about for a long time afterwards. Many people have some things tied up in their stomachs and Mads made people relax. He really hit something in people's hearts with who he is and the things he talked about."- Adam, student, Gøglerproduktionsskolen school